Rise of the New God Session 18
The eighteenth session of Rise of the New God Preceded by Rise of the New God Session 17 Pronefest heads into the lengthy passage underneath the pedestal and eventually finds themselves facing an altar. There is also a skull adorning the altar with gems for eyes. The party tries to discern anything they can from the altar and skull from afar, but learn little. Bûrzum eventually decides to take action and charges the skull. Before he can reach it, the floor collapses and he falls about 90 feet. The rest of the party jumps to the altar while Ildirin, knowing his jumping skills are weak, takes a ride in the haversack. After more investigation, Krusk eventually spots an opening in the rock pillar about 40 feet from the top. The party starts to make their way toward the hole; Krusk and K'Artanyik climbing, Idirin staying in the bag, and Syraphina flying. K'Artanyik tosses his jetpack to Bûrzum to let him quickly get to the hole. Bûrzum manages to get enough height, but can't get a hold on the rock and takes another fall from about 50 feet. Soon after a false ceiling in the room falls free and collapses onto the party. The party takes some lumps, but Krusk and K'Artanyik keep a hold of the pillar and use some ropes to speed the climbing. Another passageway leads to a hole, which drops into a large circular room. Pronefest uses some more rope to climb down into the room. Very soon after they enter the room, a large wraith appears and assaults the party. The party manages to take the wraith down and find hidden nooks all around the room. They contain many scrolls and indicate that this was the lair of Moghadam. The wraith's sword is also left upon the floor where he was defeated. Ildirin first picks it up and he hears a voice telling him to swear to the sword to destroy Acererak. Ildirin can't really put a large sword like that to good use and offers it to someone else who might. Bûrzum decides to take it and swear to destroy Acererak. The party also learns from the many scrolls around that Acererak was responsible for the two engines that they had already destroyed and that the final one was being built somewhere in the Astral Sea. Pronefest finds no more passageways and they conclude that there is nothing else to accomplish. They head back to The Vale of Long Night and talk to Grypherio about the plans he has concocted to rescue Ellonwy. He tells the party that there are stories about an ice dragon residing in the Great Glacier that they could use to tunnel into the Great Maze. The party agrees and gets gear suited to the climate; blasting off in their spaceship, newly named by Krusk as The Nasty Butler, they land near the Great Glacier. After braving some harsh weather and difficult terrain, they find an entrance to a cave. Upon entering the cavern Pronefest is presented with several passageways and randomly decides to head sown the rightmost one. After climbing up a slippery path the party encounters a narrow ledge over a deep chasm with strong winds blowing through it. K'Artanyik tries to sidle past the ledge but is blown off it by the winds and falls down the chasm into a deep lake within the glacier. Krusk, Ildirin, and Bûrzum decide to descend the distance by climbing a rope, with Syraphina in Krusk's pocket. Krusk and Bûrzum climb down just fine, but Ildirin is blown off of the rope and lands in the frigid water as well, where he and K'Artanyik swim to a small cavern to escape the icy water. Once out of the lake the two are promply attacked by a remorhaz, which surfaces up from the water to strike before slinking back beneath the surface. The other members of Pronefest join them, and they decide that the remorhaz is likely the ice dragon which Grypherio sent them for. Pronefest collectively figures that a small platform is no place to fight a huge beast and the decide to cross the icy lake to try and find a larger space to do battle. Bûrzum, Krusk, Syraphina, and K'Artanyik are able to cross to a narrow passageway, but Ildirin is still in the water when the remorhaz surfaces, swallows him whole, and swims off. Ildririn is just barely able to heal himself and escape from the stomach of the fell beast, nearly lasping into unconsciousness in the ordeal. K'Artanyik, worried for the safety of his clutchmate, flies to the rescue with his jetpack. The thri-kreen dives into the water to grab Ildirin and flies him back to the narrow passageway where the others await. Down the passageway Pronefest discovers a large snowy cavern, which upon entrance by Bûrzum and K'Artanyik is sealed off by a wall of living ice, and burrowed into by the remorhaz. Pronefest faces a tough battle, continually being hampered by the living ice wall and being burned by the remorhaz's blazing carapace. Bûrzum, enraged after being swallowed and nearly knocked unconscious by the beast, lands the finishing blow in a series of three powerful chops with his gouge. Followed by Rise of the New God Session 19 Recording *Part 1 -The Nasty Butler escorts Pronefest to the Great Glacier.